Not Quite How We Planned
by what are we doing
Summary: High school is rough. It's especially rough when you've had the same group of friends your entire life and change happens. Like Lucy Van Pelt coming home or like the reliable relationship in your friend group breaking up. They all had plans for how they wanted life to be and it just didn't go exactly like any of them planned. (Rated M for mature themes later into story)


1: Well Shit

Lucy tugged at Roger's arm. "Come on! We're gonna be late!" She was pulling him into the movie theatre. "Luce, we've got plenty of time before the movie starts."

"But I really want you to meet them!" She squeaked, pushing him through the doors. "There they are!" She pointed, excited. "Hey, guys over here!" She shouted. She turned back to Roger, holding his hand. "You'll love them."

He kissed her cheek. "I'm sure I will, Lucy-Goosy."

Charlie Brown, Sally, Linus, and Schroeder all turned at the sound of Lucy's voice.  
Linus rolled his eyes. He had met Roger before and didn't think highly of him whatsoever.  
Sally smiled. She missed the other girl in the group and was happy she was home for a little while.

Charlie Brown crossed his arms at the sound of "Lucy-Goosy". He could tell this would be a vomit-inducing visit.

Schroeder was thrilled. With Lucy having a boyfriend there would be no way she would be hanging off of him. Granted, Schroeder was having trouble writing music with Lucy not around...and most of the songs he /did/ manage to write reminded him of Lucy. But. That didn't mean anything. Nothing at all.

Lucy jumped once before dragging Roger over to her friends. "C'mon, Ro-ro!" They finally made it to her friends and she immediately hugged Sally. "It's so great to see you guys!" She hugged Charlie Brown next, skipping over Linus and hugging Schroeder, a hand accidentally going into his hair. She pulled away. "Wow, Schroeder, product much?" She wiped her hand off on Schroeder's shirt. "Well, everyone, this is my boyfriend Roger. Roger this is... Everyone!"

Roger stuck his hand out to everyone. "It's great to meet you all. Linus, nice to see you again." He shook Schroeder's hand. "And for what it's worth, your hair looks great, just ignore Lucy."

Lucy playfully smacked his arm. "Don't ignore me, meanie!"

He wrapped himself around her and kissed her cheek. "You know I didn't mean it like that-sweetie~."

She giggled at his baby-tone.

Schroeder stared at the two. Disgusting. Is this what dating Lucy would have been like? Gross.

Linus shrugged but managed a nod. "Nice to see you too, Roger..." He grit his teeth.  
Sally reached over a grabbed Linus's hand to calm him down and gave it a squeeze.  
Charlie cleared his throat. "Uh, Lucy's told us so much about you."

"Nothing too bad I hope." He chuckled.

Lucy gasped. "You guys will never believe-"

"Lucy, the movie is going to start soon." Roger said, sounding impatient.

"Yeah, ok I just wanna talk-"

"So talk later, the movie isn't going to wait. Just-" he pulled out a 20 "-go get some popcorn ok?"

Lucy give him a dirty look and snatched up the money. "Fine, but I'm using all of it. C'mon, Sally." She gently took her friends hand ad started walking.  
Roger rolled his eyes as the girls left. "Man, talk about crabby."

Linus and Charlie Brown paled. He had used the c word.

Schroeder felt protective all of a sudden. "You know, she really doesn't like being called crabby..." He said. "Has she told you that?"

Roger narrowed his eyes. "It's just a word, I don't know why it triggers her so bad." He shrugged. "And anyways, it's great if you want her to stop being pissy. Just tell her she's being crabby and she's all sunshine and rainbows." He chuckled. "I'm sure your used it a few times, Schroeder. I mean you are the piano guy who would ignore her right?"

Schroeder forced a laugh. "That's a lil' manipulative, dontcha think?" He wanted to smash the guys face in, it was official. "And I never really ignored her. She would just constantly talk about us getting married," he stressed 'getting married'. "And I really needed to concentrate on my piano. I loved having her around, her listening was lovely." He explained, trying to suppress the urge to kill this Roger guy.

Roger scoffed at Schroeder as Lucy and Sally returned with two bags of popcorn, three extra large sodas and some candy. "Finally!" Roger exclaimed as he saw them. "Can we get our seats now?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever..."

Roger looked over at the guys and then back to Lucy. "Uh- hey, Luce." He leaned in, whispering something in her ear. Her eyes widened a little bit and she shook her head slightly. "Right, sorry." A smile suddenly appeared on her face. "Let's go get our seats then!" Roger draped his arm around her, winking at Schroeder as he led them to the theatre.

As the two walked a head of the group, Schroeder and Linus exchanged glances. Sally and Charlie Brown walked ahead and Schroeder moved over to Linus. "Can you fuckin believe this creep?" Schroeder hissed.

"I want to kill him."

"We should definitely do that."

"Wait." Linus stepped back. "Since when do you care?"

Schroeder frowned. "I've always cared."

As the movie began, Lucy found herself sitting between Roger and Schroeder. Lucy didn't really remember what the movie was about, seeing as she was trying fend off Roger. His hand crept toward her thigh, she smacked it away. "Stop, I have popcorn in my lap."

Roger simply picked it up and reached across, placing it in Schroeder's. "Better?" He whispered.

Lucy scoffed. "No, knock it off."

"But this movie is so boring, let's make it a little more fun..." His hand made its way to her crotch. She gasped, slapping his hand away. "Will you quit it?"  
His head moved to her neck. "C'mon..."

Schroeder saw this and quickly intervened. He "spilled" his drink onto Lucy's lap. "Oh crap!" He hissed. "I'm so sorry, Lucy!" He kept his voice at a whisper. "Come on, I'll help you get cleaned up."

Lucy almost screamed at the cold drink. Roger just jumped away from her. "I-ok?" She agreed, following Schroeder out of the theatre.

Once she and Schroeder were out of the theater, Schroeder grabbed napkins and started to dab at Lucy's pants in silence. "Sorry, Lucy..."

"Your hand-eye coordination is way better than that, Schroeder, and we both know it." She frowned at him, not so shocked at the event anymore. "So what's up?" She asked, wondering why he purposefully spilled his drink on her.

Schroeder looked up at her from his kneeling position on the ground. "Why do you let him call you crabby?" He asked. "And he kept touching you and you told him to stop so...as your friend, I intervened." He explained quietly, working on her pants again.

Lucy took a deep breath. "Thank you... But it's really none of your business, friend or not." She crossed her arms over her chest looking down the hall way. "He's just having an... Off day... He gets jealous when I have close guy friends."

Schroeder stood, now looking down at her. "I'm sorry. I just." He sucked in a sharp breath. "I just got worried, is all. I'm sorry." He sighed.

Lucy felt a little bad now. She reached out a hand to rest on his shoulder before deciding just to hug him instead. "Thank you..."

Schroeder paused, shocked before hugging her back tightly. "I really really missed you, Lucy." He said into her hair. Schroeder felt his heart squeeze. Oh shit. This was definitely not good.

Lucy hugged back tightly. "I've missed you too..." She pulled away, hands still resting in his shoulders, his hands on her hips. "And I know you'll learn to like Roger. Once he warms up to you, he won't act this way with me, I promise."

Schroeder smiled a little. "Alright..." He sighed. "If you ever need to just get away, don't hesitate to call me okay? I'll come get you and we can do something. I don't care if it's a three hour drive." Why was he saying all of this to the weird little girl who talked at him while he played his Beethoven? He meant it, of course, but. It was just Lucy. His old friend. His gorgeous old friend.

Lucy smiled. "Yeah! Hey, that's not a bad idea, Roger can come with us, I feel like you two need to bond, and..." Lucy looked to the ground. "I actually have something to tell you..."

Schroeder inwardly groaned but held it in. "Yeah?" He asked, suddenly nervous.

"I'm... I'm moving back for my senior year..."

Schroeder's face broke into a huge grin. "That starts in a month! Oh my god, Lucy that's great!" He picked her up with ease out of his excitement and pulled her into another hug. "Thank god you're coming back." He mumbled.

Lucy let out a little noise of surprise. "Haha, I'm glad you think so!"

"Lucy?" Roger walked out, not only seeing how close they were embracing, but also having heard her. "You're moving back?" His voice had a hidden tone that could be described as dangerous.

Schroeder put Lucy down and stopped hugging her, but stayed close. Something about Roger's tone of voice made him worried.

"Uh... Yeah..." She spoke quietly. "I was going to tell you..."

Roger crossed his arms and took large, intimidating strides towards them. "When were you gonna tell me, Lucy?" He asking threateningly.

Schroeder's hands balled up into fists at his sides. No. He couldn't let his temper escape now. He forced his hands to relax.

"On the way home, I just wanted you to be relaxed when I told you." Lucy stepped away from Schroeder, "I wanted you to get a chance to meet my friends, so then you could visit me and it wouldn't be awkward... Please don't be mad, Ro-Ro..." She placed her arms over his neck, giving him a pouty face.

He frowned a little more before sighing. "I'm not mad, Lucy-Goosy... I just wish you had told me sooner." His hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her against him, kissing her.

Schroeder just stood and watched. Why did he feel so jealous? Why did he want to vomit and then punch Roger in the face? Why did he want to kiss Lucy the way Roger got to kiss her?

Wait. What?

Schroeder shook his head and walked out the front door. He needed a moment to clear his mind. He did /not/ want to kiss Lucy. He just really wanted to beat Roger's face in for some reason. Entirely logical.

Entirely illogical.

Schroeder groaned. "I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later. Musicians tend to fall in love with their muses." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, cursing his emotions and hair products.

Lucy slowly pulled away from Roger, looking around. "What happened to Schroeder?" She asked.

"Who cares... He's kind of a pussy." Roger said, kissing her neck.

Lucy pulled away. "W-what makes you say that?" Lucy asked, concerned.

"Well it's just... Ya know-"

"No I don't know."

Schroeder frowned. Even if it was summer, Minnesota still got cold at night and he didn't have a jacket. But there was no way he could go back in and see Lucy and /him/ sucking face. He shivered and rubbed his arms, deciding he'd wait a few more minutes before going back in.

"Lucy, don't be upset. Who cares any ways?"

"/I/ care! Roger these aren't just some guys you can pull me away from because you feel jealous! These are my friends, my family, I grew up with them, they know me better than anyone..." Roger remained silent. Lucy took a deep breath. "Just spend more time with them, I know you'll grow to like them."

After a moment, Roger nodded. "Yeah ok..."

"Good. Now I'm going to go get the rest of this soda off, will you go find Schroeder?"

Schroeder paced back and forth outside. He needed to push his temper down. He had a feeling that Lucy wouldn't be able to forgive him if he slugged Roger in the face.

"C'mon, Ackerman, you're fine." He stopped pacing and talked to himself. "You're-" he was cut off by the doors opening.

"Hey, Schroeder, there you are. For whatever reason Lucy got all worried about ya." Roger sauntered from the doors into the cold air. "I tried to convince her you were fine, but you know women..." He chuckled to his own joke.

Schroeder raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah...women." He shrugged. "And Lucy's okay?" The worried words fell from Schroeder's mouth before he could stop them.

Roger stiffly spoke. "She's fine." His jaw tensed. "Look, I know you like Lucy. It's written all over your face." He looked away. "And I can also see you don't like /me/ very much and that's just fine because I'm not exactly ecstatic around you. But Lucy wants us to be friends so..." He scratched the back of his head "Let's just act alright? For Lucy." He looked directly at Schroeder. "But I love her. So don't mess that up, yeah?" His voice was a little rougher.

Schroeder's jaw stiffened. "I don't like her. You read that wrong." He lied. "But fine. We'll be civil for her." He crossed his arms over his chest. Schroeder took long strides back into the theater. "Although I think /I'm/ a bit more special than /you/." He huffed under his breath.

Roger rolled his eyes at the child-like behavior and followed after him. As Roger entered the warm theatre, he instantly saw Lucy rush up to Schroeder. "There you are! Why were you outside? You're freezing!" She instantly put we hands up on his arms to attempt to warm him up. Roger saw this and calmly walked over to them. He had no fear, because he knew Schroeder would know not to fuck with his girl.

Schroeder smiled. "I'm okay, I promise." He nodded, putting one of his hands on her's. "I was just massively third wheeling and I didn't want to...ruin the mood." He mumbled and ran his thumb over her knuckles.

Lucy gave him a small smile. "Well you could've gone back into the movie, ya know?"

Schroeder shrugged. "You know that the cold clears my head." He sighed. "Which I needed to do."

Lucy looked concerned for a moment. "Clear your head?"

He shrugged noncommittally again, but then smiled. "Just thinking about things for the group to do when you come back!" He faked.

Lucy raised an eyebrow, she knew he was lying but she didn't pressure him. She looked over his shoulder. "Thanks, Roger!"

Roger walked up, standing next to Schroeder.

"I told you he would be fine, he's a big boy-" he clapped a hand on the blond's shoulder. "-right, Schroeder?"

Schroeder did not flinch. He did not smile. He did not shrug. He merely looked down at the shorter boy. "Yup." His voice was cold, calculating, and condescending.

Lucy did not notice. She merely smiled and looked at the two of them, happy.


End file.
